Cast Announced for Live Action Film Adaptation of “Hell Girl”

Macabre comic and anime series “Hell Girl” (“Jigoku Shoujo”) will be getting a live-action film adaptation, slated for release in 2019. As part of the announcement, the film’s initial cast list has also been revealed.

The new film will be headlined by Tina Tamashiro, Manami Hashimoto, RAIKU, Akaji Maro, Nana Mori, Sawa Nimura, SKE48’s Nami Ooba, Kazuki Namioka, and Tomu Fujita. The film will be directed by Kouji Shiraishi.

The story of “Jigoku Shoujo” centers on Enma Ai, the eponymous “Hell Girl”, who is tasked to drag the souls of people to hell at the request of other people who harbour deep feelings of hate and desire for revenge. Once the contract is consummated, the person who made the request will likewise end up in hell after their death.

The means to contact Ai and enter a contract with her have changed over the years: first as a request written on a wooden tablet or enma (hence, her name), which evolved to answering a strange ad in a newspaper, and now via an online service accessed via smartphones.